


The One Where Ben and Mackenzie Grow Up

by written_notes



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: Babysitting, F/M, Fluff, briefly features the triplets, essentially Mackenzie misses her old house and somehow gets adopted by the FRIENDS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22136653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/written_notes/pseuds/written_notes
Summary: She notices the food splattered on his shirt and lifts a brow. “Are you babysitting for them?”“I- yes.” He manages to find his voice. “Although at this point it’s more like the apocalypse.”
Relationships: Ben Geller/Mackenzie
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	The One Where Ben and Mackenzie Grow Up

He runs out of the house with his baseball and glove with a vague promise from his Uncle Chandler that he’ll come out and play with him. Aunt Monica makes some comment about Uncle Chandler being a dropper, but Ben will take what he can get. 

Aunt Monica doesn’t allow him to throw things around the house, especially when the twins are in the same room. He momentarily wishes she was more like fun Aunt Rachel, but then remembers that Aunt Monica makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the world – even better than his mum’s. Actually, Aunt Rachel doesn’t allow him to throw the ball when Emma’s around either.

He’s tossing the ball around in the front yard while waiting for Uncle Chandler to come out when he sees a girl on a bicycle at the street in front of the house. She’s about his age, with short blonde hair and a pensive expression as she stares at the house. He wonders whether she’s one of the neighbours waiting to get something from Aunt Monica.

He’s bored, so he jogs up to her with a friendly smile. “Hey. Are you looking for someone?”

She blinks in surprise, as if she hadn’t noticed him standing there in the yard previously. “No.”

It’s short and almost bordering on rude, in Ben’s opinion. “Then why are you staring at the house?”

The girl gives him a cautious look before admitting, “I used to live in this house. Then my stupid parents went and sold it to this couple from the city and we had to move.”

“Oh.” He nods. “I guess they sold it to my Aunt Monica and Uncle Chandler.”

Her eyes flick towards him in vague interest before returning to gaze at the house. “So you don’t live here?”

“Nah, I’m just visiting.” He shrugs. “It’s a nice house.” He adds, since his mothers have impressed upon him the need to be polite to girls.

“I know it is.” She replies, and he’s a little annoyed by her short replies, as if he’s beneath her attention. Then she sighs sadly. “I miss it.”

Ben feels a little bad for her then, because he knows he’d hate it if he had to move house. He already finds it rather tiresome to have to shuttle from his own house to his dad’s house, while occasionally visiting Aunt Monica’s place. “Do you want to come in?”

That catches her attention, and she suddenly turns her piercing blue gaze onto him, making him squirm uncomfortably. “Wouldn’t that be weird?”

He thinks about it. “Uncle Chandler’s pretty awkward as it is – I doubt he’ll mind. And Aunt Monica’s alright, as long as you don’t track in dirt from outside or drop crumbs on the floor or make the babies cry.”

She’s quiet for a moment as she considers his offer, and he’s almost about to shrug and walk away when she gets off her bicycle and takes off her helmet. “Thanks, I’d like that.”

He grins and starts heading back to the front door. “I’m Ben, by the way.”

“I’m Mackenzie.” She introduces herself with a rather formal handshake after parking her bike. “It’s nice to meet you.”

\--

Ben is slightly surprised to see Mackenzie again the next time he visits Aunt Monica. How many kids keep returning to visit their childhood homes which were occupied by strangers? Aunt Monica explains that she thought it would be nice to let Mackenzie come over once in a while. Uncle Chandler says he allows it because Aunt Monica really loves children, but Ben secretly thinks that Uncle Chandler likes Mackenzie because she has a similar sense of humour.

It turns out that Mackenzie is a year younger than him and goes to one of the public schools in the suburb. It sounds rather different from his Manhattan private day school, and Ben wonders what it would be like to go there.

Mackenzie is pretty cool for a girl, he thinks. Sure, she isn’t too great at sports, but she’s pretty willing to stand there to catch the ball when he practices pitching. She likes reading, and he tries to pretend she isn’t already smarter than he is, because really, he’s a whole grade above her and that means a lot when you’re in elementary school. But that means she isn’t like the girls in his school who are always talking about their clothes or giggling at stupid things.

His dad quite likes Mackenzie because she’s smart, and thinks Ben doesn’t know that he bribed her to convince him to attend science camp over the summer holidays. Uncle Joey turns to Mackenzie for advice on things like his career, which Ben doesn’t really understand, but in many ways Uncle Joey is still like a kid. Aunt Monica has started teaching Mackenzie to bake, and Ben gets to be the guinea pig for her experiments, to his delight.

All in all, by the end of a couple of years, it’s as if his dad’s friends have adopted Mackenzie into their family. Ben doesn’t need another sister, but he decides to view her as a holiday friend.

\-- 

Ben doesn’t visit Aunt Monica and Uncle Chandler that often anymore, since it’s a long drive and middle school is a lot busier. So one day when his dad and Aunt Rachel bring him over for a weekend dinner, he gets a shock when he sees who opens the door. Now, he knows from biology that girls hit puberty at a younger age, but it’s still galling to be shorter than a younger girl like Mackenzie.

“Ben, you remember Mac, don’t you?” Aunt Monica smiles.

“Yeah, he had it with cheese last night.” His dad replies, to which Aunt Rachel groans.

Aunt Monica ignores him and bends down to swoop Emma into a hug, and they all troop in, leaving Mackenzie to close the door and face Ben. “It’s been a while.” She states.

“Yeah.” He replies, still mentally bemoaning his short stature. “How are things?”

“They haven’t changed much.” She shrugs. “How’s middle school?”

“A lot busier than I thought.” He admits. “There are a lot more classes, plus I’ve got soccer practice and baseball practice most afternoons.”

“No science club for you?” She asks slyly as they walk down the hallway.

He coughs. “There’s no science club at my school. What a pity.”

She rolls her eyes. “Sounds like it isn’t worth applying to go there next year, then.” 

“Are you thinking of coming to Smithfield?” He asks in interest.

“Well, if my parents can afford it, then perhaps yes.” She nods. “It might be weird seeing you in a school setting though.”

“No fear. I’m one of the cool kids.” He says boastfully. “Stick with me and middle school will be a breeze.”

“Then how come you spent the first month getting pranked by your classmates?” She raises a brow.

He gapes at her in shock. Then he realizes his mum must have heard about it from her teacher friends at his school, and then told his dad, who obviously told Aunt Monica, who can’t keep secrets to save her life. “Well, you know me. It takes a while to get used to my brand of charm.”

“Right.” She smiles sardonically. 

\--

She does end up going to his school, but being in different years, he hardly sees her around. People who find out that they are actually friends are rather surprised. He’s sporty and a bit of a prankster, while she gets good grades and joins the debate club. They aren’t best buddies by any means, but they have the odd friendly conversation with several sarcastic comments and good-natured ribbing thrown in, as the years go by and they progress on to the same high school.

He finally gets his growth spurt and shoots up like a beanpole, while she grows out her hair and gains slight curves. Aunt Monica is always saying how much they’ve grown whenever Mackenzie goes over to babysit the twins, or when Ben comes over for a holiday visit. 

Then one day he gets coerced into babysitting the twins, which involves cleaning up after dinner according to Aunt Monica’s OCD standards, getting them to do their homework, and making them go to bed by 9pm with the help of the stash of sweets Uncle Chandler stealthily points out to him. 

Still, Jack and Erica are secretly demon children, and no amount of scolding or bribery will get them to sit down and finish their dinner. Ben seriously considers calling the police at one point.

Then the doorbell rings and he rushes to answer it, wondering if Aunt Monica has realized what an impossible task she left to her nephew and has come to release him. To his surprise, it’s Mackenzie standing outside the door, wearing a pretty dress and makeup. He’s never quite seen her like this, and suddenly finds himself tongue-tied.

“Oh, I didn’t know you’d be here.” She says curiously. “I just came by to borrow a pair of earrings from Aunt Mon and-” She stops talking when she hears the screams coming from the dining room. She notices the food splattered on his shirt and lifts a brow. “Are you babysitting for them?”

“I- yes.” He manages to find his voice. “Although at this point it’s more like the apocalypse.” 

Mackenzie grins at his weak joke and slips in past him, leaving him to shut the door. She strides into the dining room and fixes the twins with a look so reminiscent of Aunt Monica’s that they immediately quieten down and stop flinging food at each other. “Hi, Mac.” They chorus sheepishly, and Ben gapes at their sudden reticence. How the hell did that happen?

“Hi guys.” She smiles. “Is there a reason why your dinner is on the ceiling instead of on your plates?”

“She started it!” Jack insists as he points a grubby finger at his sister, who starts yelling in denial. 

Mackenzie whistles sharply and they fall quiet again. “That was a rhetorical question. Now, you’d better finish your dinner and then help Cousin Ben to clean up this mess, alright? What would your mum say if she saw the dining room looking like this?”

Ben joins the twins in a collective shudder. “But we’ve got homework to do.” Erica pipes up, to Ben’s astonishment, because fifteen minutes ago she’d stubbornly insisted that she hadn’t any homework to do, the little liar. Also, who gives seven-year olds homework?

“Is that so?” Mackenzie asks, and they nod violently. “Well, then I guess you’d better start eating quickly, or your parents are going to come home to a messy house and I think we all know what will happen then. I’ll help you guys clean up.”

Jack and Erica start wolfing down their dinner, and Ben pulls Mackenzie out of the dining room into the hallway. “How did you do that?” He asks in awe. “It’s like you cast a spell on them!”

“It’s all about the tone of voice.” She says loftily before shaking her head. “You obviously haven’t done this often.”

“Hey, do I look like Gary Poppins to you?” He huffs. “But thanks. You really don’t have to stay to help clean up. You look like you’re going somewhere…” He vaguely gestures to her dress.

“That’s alright, I didn’t really want to go to the party anyway.” She shrugs nonchalantly. “And if I leave you alone with them, I’m afraid Aunt Mon and Uncle Chan won’t have a house to come back to.”

He makes a face and heads to the kitchen to find some paper towels and rags to clean up the mess. Between him doing the grunt work and Mackenzie shepherding the twins, the job gets done and Ben orders some pizza for them as a reward for their labours. It’s the longest time they’ve spent alone together, and he wonders why he’s never realized how attractive she is.

That thought alone scares him, and he tries to suppress it as they continue joking about Uncle Joey and attempt Uncle Chandler’s 50 states game. Mackenzie misses the Dakotas, to her chagrin, while Ben puts Nevada twice and pretends to win.

\--

Ben doesn’t know how he gets saddled with these things. If Emma wants to go to the Buffay triplets’ birthday party, why can’t Aunt Rachel or Aunt Phoebe be the one to ferry here both ways? Sure, he loves driving now that he has his license and whenever his dad lets him borrow the car, but there’s something undefinably embarrassing about the way Emma makes a big deal about her older brother sometimes. 

He still remembers her insisting on making him wear her fairy princess crown at last year’s Halloween when he’d been forced to bring her trick or treating instead of hanging out with his schoolmates. Only the death glare from Rachel and the bribe his dad slipped him later on kept him from committing fratricide then and there.

“Ben?” He looks up from his phone to see Mac walking down the same street where his car is parked. “What are you doing here?”

He keeps his phone. “I’m here to pick up Emma from a birthday party. What are you doing here?”

“I was doing a group project at my friend’s house.” She points vaguely in the direction she came from. Seeing him glance at his watch and raise a brow, she rolls her eyes. “Ugh, I know it’s late, and I’m starving too. The sacrifices we make for decent grades.”

“You haven’t even had dinner yet?” He blinks in surprise.

“Well, I wasn’t going to stay for dinner and make awkward small talk with my friend’s family, was I?” 

“I dunno, I think I’d do it for free food.” He looks like he’s actually thinking about it seriously. “Anyway, why don’t you just go in with me, I’m sure they’ve got leftover food, or birthday cake.”

Mac looks a bit startled, something he doesn’t get to see very often given how self-assured she is. “But I don’t know these people. And it’ll take me a while to get home afterwards.”

“Oh, it’s Aunt Phoebe’s nephew and nieces’ birthday, you’ve heard of them. Just come in, grab something and I’ll send you home after.” He all but drags her towards the house.

They ring the bell, and the door is opened by a haggard-looking Frank Jr, while chaos reigns in the background. “You look too old to be my kids’ friends.” He says suspiciously.

“That’s Ross’ son, Frank.” Aunt Phoebe smiles. “He’s here to pick Emma up. Oh, and Mac!”

Mac finds herself welcomed into the frenzy and given a piece of cake, which she decides to accept after Ben shoots her a pointed look. Emma greets her excitedly and starts talking nonstop about what a fun party this is. Ben finds it slightly amusing how seriously Mac seems to take this conversation, nodding at all the right moments and asking further questions in between eating.

They manage to extricate themselves after Emma has said goodbye to the triplets and found her party goodie bag which had mysteriously landed up under the sofa. “Mac, why are you here?” Emma finally thinks to ask, after she’s strapped herself in at the backseat.

“Well, I was promised good food.” Mac shrugs, pulling on her own seatbelt in the front passenger seat. “Who doesn’t like cake?”

“I love cake!” Emma agrees. “But my friends at school said if I keep eating cake I’ll become fat and I won’t be able to fit into all my dresses.”

“Everything in moderation, I suppose.” Mac says. “But you can always buy new clothes if they don’t fit anymore.”

“Well, I do like shopping…” Emma replies, to which Ben gives a snort that means no duh, “but what if they make fun of me for being fat? There’s a girl in our class who’s chubby and no one wants to hang out with her.”

Ben glances briefly at Mac, whose brows are slightly furrowed in thought. He focuses back on the road, because he’s sure whatever is said next will come better from Mac than from him. 

“I don’t think there’s anything funny about someone else being overweight.” Mac finally says. “And I’d like to think my friends hang out with me for my amazing personality rather than my figure.”

“Amazing indeed.” Ben scoffs.

“My personality or my figure?” She shoots back, and Emma giggles in the backseat. It doesn’t take long before they arrive at Emma’s home. The young girl gives Mac an unexpected hug and a “thanks” before running into the apartment, to Aunt Rachel’s bemusement. 

“Thank you, Ben.” Aunt Rachel smiles. “I know your Saturday nights are precious.”

“Nah, it was alright.” His gaze flicks over to Mac before returning to Rachel, who is starting to have a knowing grin on her face. “I’ll just be sending her home then.” He quickly ushers

“Emma’s quite sweet.” Mac smiles as they head back out to the car. “Clearly she adores you.”

“You know, sometimes when Dad sees her grades, he tells her to study harder “like Mackenzie”. You’ll notice he doesn’t mention me.” Ben quips. “She probably thinks of you like Wonder Woman.”

She chuckles. “Well, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a younger sister. Although I imagine it’s a little different for you, given the age difference, and growing up in different households.” Her sentence ends on a questioning note.

He considers this. “I guess I don’t know her as well as most brothers know their sisters… but I think that’s okay.”

She nods encouragingly, and he wonders why no one ever seems to ask him the questions she does. She’s different from anyone else he knows, and he wishes they could spend more time together.

===

More than six months later, the SATs are over and high school is coming to an end soon, but he still hasn’t had the courage to tell her how he feels. It seems like he sees her everywhere – at school, at random birthday parties or weekend gatherings – but it never feels like enough. He has, however, had some inkling that she has been less cheerful lately, and he thinks he knows what might cheer her up.

“I can’t believe you’ve never heard of it!” Ben shakes his head in wonder as he fishes around in the drawers for the elusive tape.

Mac rolls her eyes. “This had better be worth it, Geller. We’re missing the party.”

“Please, do you think Jack and Erica have anything else on their minds other than what presents they got this year?” He continues rifling through the tapes. 

The noise from the twins’ birthday party is still pretty loud from downstairs, and Mac admits they probably won’t be missed for a while. She wonders what will happen the day Jack and Erica decide they want separate boy and girl birthday parties. Knowing Aunt Monica, she’d probably rise to the challenge of the organization with joy. 

“Found it!” He holds it up triumphantly. Mac squints and sees the label on the videotape: ‘Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.’

“I’m almost afraid to ask what kind of show that is.” She lifts a brow.

He grins back at her. “Oh, it’s absolutely terrible. But don’t tell Uncle Joey I said that. I know he still calls you from time to time to ask for career advice.” He looks over his shoulder comically as if he thinks Uncle Joey might suddenly appear behind them, when Mac is very sure he’s still downstairs with the others. Ben slots it into the old videotape player and turns the TV on, but it fails to work. “Oh, come on!” He hits the TV gently on the side, to no avail.

“Look, that thing’s ancient, there’s no way it’s still usable.” She points out.

“But now you’ll never get to see the worst crime detective show in history.” He groans. “And it even has your name in it. And a robot!”

“A robot crime detective show from the nineties?” Her grin grows wider. “I guess we’ll just have to find someone to fix that videotape player so we can watch it another time.”

“It’s a date.” He says unthinkingly before stopping himself, his cheeks starting to burn. He turns to look at her with an apology on the tip of his tongue when he realizes she’s blushing too. Hope flickers in his chest and he decides to be brave. “I mean, if you’d like to go out with me.”

She bites her lip and gazes at him with those arresting eyes. “You’re asking me out?”

“Y-yeah.” His voice becomes even quieter. “I really like you, Mac.”

“I like you too, Ben.” She admits with a shy smile. “I didn’t say anything because I thought you’d be leaving to go to college pretty soon, and it might not work out.” She doesn’t tell him how the thought of him potentially leaving the state had bummed her out for a while.

He takes her hand into his. “We can take it one step at a time.” She squeezes his hand back reassuringly. “Can I…?” He leans forward and she nods in reply, tilting her head up as his lips meet hers gently.

“AW, I don’t need to see that!” Uncle Joey stares at them in horror and quickly backtracks, closing the door behind him. 

Ben and Mac break apart quickly after and stare at the closed door in bewilderment, wondering how long it will take Uncle Joey to realize he’s left them alone…in his room.


End file.
